If your business’ website is built around the WordPress content management system, you are likely familiar with the WordPress Dashboard. Most of the day-to-day administrative activities -- including the creation of blog posts, theme updates and user management -- are handled via the Dashboard. However, folder creation is not. Instead, you need to use an FTP client to create a folder in the root directory of your business’ WordPress site.

1. Launch your Web browser, navigate to your WordPress Dashboard and log in using a username and password with administrative privileges.

2. Click the “Settings” button on the left side of the Dashboard. WordPress displays the General Settings screen.

3. Write down the Web address displayed in the field labeled “WordPress address (URL).” This is the address of the root folder of your WordPress site.

4. Open your computer’s FTP application and log in using the username and password associated with your Web hosting account. If you do not already have an FTP client installed on your computer, WordPress recommends using the free FileZilla FTP client (see Resources).

5. Navigate to the folder you wrote down in Step Three. In most FTP clients, files are laid out in two windows: Files on your computer are in a window on the left and files on your website are in a window on the right. Navigate to the root folder using the window on the right.

6. Right-click inside the folder and click the new folder creation link on the menu that appears. The label of the new folder creation link may differ slightly depending on the FTP application you’re using. In FileZilla, for example, it is labeled “Create Directory.”

7. Enter a name for your new folder and click “OK.” Your FTP client creates a new folder in the root folder of your WordPress blog.

Tip

Some Web hosts allow you to use Web-based control panels instead of FTP clients to create folders. To add a new folder in the root WordPress folder via a Web-based control panel, open your Web browser and navigate to your website’s control panel login page. The location of this page varies depending on the settings established by your business’s hosting provider. If your provider uses cPanel, for instance, the URL is generally www.yoursite.com/cpanel with your business’ Web address replacing “www.yoursite.com.” Contact your hosting provider for the correct location. Enter your username and password. In cPanel, double-click the "File Manager" icon under the Files heading. Click the “New Folder” icon and enter a name and location for your folder in the provided fields.

About the Author

Andrew Tennyson has been writing about culture, technology, health and a variety of other subjects since 2003. He has been published in The Gazette, DTR and ZCom. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and a Master of Fine Arts in writing.